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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The great prophet Solomon wrote an interesting sentence in the 14th chapter of his book of wisdom known as Proverbs. It goes like this: “There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” The application of that text is that there are many things in this world which seem to make sense, but if it’s not grounded upon or founded upon Christ, it will lead to not just death, but eternal death. Exactly as we sang in that last verse of the hymn, “Death’s power holds us still in thrall and bears us toward the tomb. Death’s darkening cloud hangs like a pall.”
Sin is what separates us one from the other. It is what causes strife in marriage and in family and in the world. It is God’s great forgiveness in Christ’s death and resurrection which binds us together. It is what brings healing to marriages and to families. It is what gives us courage to love one another, to serve one another because we have first been loved together by the holy and righteous God and have first been served by that very same Lord Jesus Christ with His flesh and blood in the Holy Supper.
In this morning’s text, in the latter part of that text, we see the ways of man. The chief priests, the Pharisees, the ruling council are all upset because people are believing that Jesus is the Messiah. Why? Many of the Jews who had come with Mary and had seen what he did believed in him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. They wanted to get a reading from the people that they knew who were religious, who had understanding of the Scriptures. The chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs, and if we let him go on like this, everyone, everyone will follow him and believe in him.” And like all things, it’s always a personal vendetta, isn’t it? And the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation. Their desire is sinfully motivated like ours.
But Caiaphas, being the wise priest, the chief priest, said this great statement, and he had no idea of what he was saying. He was saying this to pipe down these people and to tell them, “Don’t worry about it. You know nothing at all,” he says, “nor do you understand that it’s better for the one man should die for the people than that the whole nation should perish.” In his mind, he’s thinking, let them follow him. Let us put him to death. Because at the very end of that text, what does it say? From that day on, they made plans to put him to death. We will put him to death. That movement will die and our place will remain steadfast in this nation. There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to eternal death.
And they advised these people who came and told them what Jesus had done, that information. They proclaimed hell to these people. Now that’s ironic that Caiaphas, who in his own cynicism thinks, let them put this radical to death, and then we’ll be done with him, has no idea that his proclamation applies not just to the Jews, but to all people, the Gentiles as well, meaning you and me. That it is the great gift of eternal life that one does die for all, that all may not die. And Caiaphas is completely, completely in the dark about what he has said. This is proof that forgiveness, bought by death and completed by resurrection, brings people together. But it either brings people together in agreement and faith, or in the case of the Pharisees, chief priests, and ruling councils, in opposition. But it does bring people together, either for or against Jesus.
Meaning that Christ’s resurrection does remarkable things and brings remarkable change. Some of that change is perceptible. It united a group of fearful disciples who had left their Lord in the garden and emboldened them to be proclaimers of that, and the church grew despite persecution. But most of the remarkable change that Christ’s resurrection brought was imperceptible because they still suffered. Because their life in this world still was lived in sin. Just like yours and just like mine. And they had to wrestle with that. They believed, as the psalmist proclaimed so beautifully by our choir, that there is mercy in God, therefore I shall fear him. Or as Job said, “Though he slay me, yet I still shall believe in him,” the very one who he knows has the power and from whom slaying comes.
Now, at the beginning of the text, how this all gets started is a beautiful conversation between Martha and her Lord. Now, Martha gets a bad rap and a bad reputation. She’s the one that everybody looks to and says, don’t be a Martha, don’t be a busybody, sit down and take time and listen to God’s Word like Mary did. Absolutely true. But rather than thinking of her in such a one-dimensional kind of a way, this woman, Martha… and this morning’s text gives a great and very powerful theological confession of faith. As powerful and as theological as that creed we just proclaimed.
It all begins when Jesus comes to the village of Bethany four days after he had been summoned by Mary and Martha. She greets him and says, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” That is not a statement of unbelief. Say it again: that is not a statement of unbelief; that is a statement of faith. Faith in God’s hand in doing what he has promised to do. In her mind, though, because her mind, like yours and mine, is very narrow in its understanding, because it is so infected with sin, and it is so finite and not infinite, she thinks that, well, you know, the whole reason my brother died and didn’t live like he had healed other people who were near death was because he didn’t come right away. But she even adds this caveat of faith: “Even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”
Now you can’t say that she’s asking for a resurrection right there. You could possibly argue that. I don’t think she’s asking for a resurrection. She’s really asking, “Lord, may your will be done.” That’s what she’s asking. But then Jesus takes her further because Jesus knows she’s thinking about her brother’s resurrection. “Your brother will rise again.” Martha gives another great confession of faith. “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Is that a true statement? Absolutely. And Jesus says, “No, no, no, you’re missing the point. You and I, you and I have resurrection right now. You and I will see its completion on the last day, but we have it now. It’s not like we wait for it to be given to us. We’ve got it now. I am, not I will be, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live.” That applies to Lazarus even if he wasn’t raised from the dead in our text. That applies to Martha who has not yet died. That applies to you and me.
“And whoever believes lives and believes in me shall never die.” And then Jesus adds something recorded by John that’s only in this gospel of John: “Do you believe this?” Now that’s interesting because it’s Jesus’s way of kind of snapping us to attention and making us go, “Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, stop, think. Do you believe this?” You see, when you and I come across things that challenge our faith, the things that our faith has brought change in our lives and how we deal with things, we can get spun up. We either get spun up outwardly or inwardly, but we get spun up. And we need that kind of wake-up call to finally say, “Yes, Lord, I believe.”
And like the beautiful passage in Mark’s gospel, “Help my unbelief, Lord.” This is that kind of concept here with Martha, whose faith is speaking so loudly, but because Martha is Martha, she’s spun up on the inside as well. And Jesus is trying to bring her calm, give her hope, show her change brought by resurrection and the life. Then she says this powerful theological statement: “Yes, Lord, I believe.” That’s the same thing that you and I say in the midst of tears. Some of you may remember a sermon preached at a loved one’s funeral, whether it was one of your family members or whether it was a friend or an acquaintance. This text is typically used often for funeral sermons.
And then, in the midst of sorrow and seeing a dead person’s body, touching cold, lifeless flesh, it is very hard to make that reconciliation between what you see and understand with your mind and what you know and believe in your heart to be true. And that is what Jesus is proclaiming to Martha. And it is her faith, not her mind, that says this great theological proof: “Lord, I believe that You are the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One.” Don’t go any further. Stop right there. For her to say that, she’s implying that everything from Genesis 3:15, the seed of the woman who shall crush the head of Satan, all the way through all of the great prophecies of the Old Testament, she says, “You’re the fulfillment. You are the Messiah.”
It’s the very antithesis to what Caiaphas proclaimed to his cronies among the ruling council—the exact opposite. She’s proclaiming it, and she isn’t proclaiming it just to Jesus. Remember the context of this text. There are a bunch of people there with Martha. The disciples are there with Jesus. So there’s Jesus and all of his disciples; there is Martha and all those friends and family members who are there who aren’t back at the house with Mary but are there with her. And they’re hearing all of this, this little mini-sermon given not only by Jesus, but by one of his beloved, Martha.
She doesn’t stop there with just saying he’s the Messiah. She adds a very important essence of it: “Thou art the Son of God.” She calls him the Son of God. This is profound, and John’s Gospel makes it very clear that Jesus is not just a mere phantasm of a man. He is God and man in one, in human flesh. She calls him the very thing that Gabriel told Mary: “You shall give birth to the Son of God.” She adds, then, also one other theological point: “The one who is coming into the world.” You go back and Google that in your Bible. Look at the concordance, and you will find lots of phrases about the one coming into the world. The one who comes into the world is also another way of saying God, the one about whom has been written, who would be sent by the Father into the world—the bread from heaven that comes into this world.
But still, nothing about raising Lazarus. Now, the raising of Lazarus. So, Jesus brings this entourage that’s been gathered about him to the tomb, the very place of death. If you and I were brought by Jesus to the dead body of our loved ones or where they’re buried in the grave, we would be really wondering what’s going on now. Is he coming to mourn? Well, the text talks about him being deeply moved. He’s not deeply moved because he grieves like the rest of men. He’s deeply moved because he’s looking at the very thing he’s going to have to face on the cross for the sake of Lazarus and Martha and all those gathered around him, and more importantly, for the sake of Caiaphas and those who will never believe, that he will face death for them too.
“Take away the stone,” he says. That would be the same thing if someone said, “Dig up the body.” Okay, that seems kind of sick. But he’s trying to get them to see he is that which he said earlier: the resurrection and the life, the very antithesis to your and my rational, reasonable experience in this world where death comes, as we sing in that hymn. “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” They really don’t want to get their hands dirty in all this. And it will bring remarkable change in their life, won’t it? And it will change everything for them who believe. It will also change everything for those who will not believe because it will be one more judgment against their unbelief.
“Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” And the answer is automatic: Well, yes, that’s exactly what he said. If you believe, you will see the glory of God. Wasn’t it Jesus who said to Thomas, “You believe because you have seen. Blessed are those who have not seen God and yet have believed.” And that’s you and me. Granted, God has given us little glimpses of the resurrection power in our own lives, of how it brings change into our life, sometimes in perceptibly painful ways about standing for the faith, sometimes in joyful ways. But we have seen little glimpses; most of it’s imperceptible. They took away the stone.
He lifted up his eyes and said, “Father…” Now, wait a second. Why has he got to talk to God the Father? He is fulfilling the very passage that Martha had spoken about him. If he is the Son of God, the very one about whom the Father spoke from heaven at his baptism and at the transfiguration, “Thou art my beloved Son,” he is fulfilling that which has already been proclaimed. He is saying, “You can be guaranteed that the Word of God is made sure and certain in me. I thank you that you have heard me. I know that you always hear me, but I said this on account of whom? Not me. You.” He said what he said on account of you; you who live in 2011. You who live in an age that scoffs at such miracles. You who know by faith it is true. You who too will have to look at death in the form of a loved one at the front of a church, whether it’s here or somewhere else. You who heard from the prophet Ezekiel, who knew only God knows how bones can be brought to life. And rather than just bringing them to life, he has them preached to life by Ezekiel—preached, proclaimed.
Just as you were proclaimed and preached to life in that font, through that proclamation of the word, and here, through that word made flesh and given to you to eat and drink. In the same way, it’s Jesus doing this for their faith, that it would be fixed not upon the miracle, but on the word. Think about how he healed the man. But first, before he ever healed the man who was on the mat, he forgave his sin. The people were upset. “How can this man forgive sins?” And so he questions them, “Which is easier to do, forgive sin or heal the man?” But so that you may know that the Son of Man has the power to forgive sins, he preaches that man not only forgiveness but preaches him to stand up.
In the same way here in this text, he doesn’t raise Lazarus first. Faith is engendered and brought by the proclamation of that word. This is just icing on the cake, the raising of Lazarus. He cried out with a loud voice—loud because he wanted to make sure they heard him, that it was his command and word that brought this effect. No different than they heard Ezekiel preach this word that brought those people to life. No different than at our own resurrection, Jesus is quoted in the scriptures as calling us from the grave audibly with a voice. He says to Lazarus, “Come forth!” in a loud voice. The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, his face wrapped with the cloth. What an amazing sight!
And then he tells these people who had wrapped the body, who had seen and touched death, to touch him again and to see and feel life. No different than what he did to Thomas: “Behold my hands and side. Put your hand here, Thomas. Stop doubting and believe.” Just as the widow’s son at Nain, whom he raised from the dead, did he touch the dead body and said, “Come forth.” And as he did to the little girl, Jairus’ daughter: “Talitha Kumi, arise.” He tells them to do the same. After they have already come to faith, he gives them that little extra thing.
Now, in this case, it’s joyful. But whether it’s joyful or it causes us struggle, it’s remarkable change that he brings to you and to me. And remarkable change causes us joy, like it did here, and remarkable change can also cause us great pain because it pushes us to love people that are unlovable, to forgive when we would rather remember the pain and not forgive, just as it brought pain to Mary Magdalene and John and his own mother as they watched him die and his lifeless body hang upon the accursed tree.
It is the same. His resurrection and his life brings remarkable change in your and my life. When he comes and he says, “Unbind him and let him go,” Lazarus still has to die again, doesn’t he? Lazarus still has to go through what he already experienced the first time he died. But you and I know Lazarus isn’t afraid of dying. He’s already done it once. It’s no big thing. But Lazarus’ faith that believes such a promise believes in that proclaimed word. Some of the radical change and remarkable change that Christ’s resurrection has brought into your life, we get to see little glimpses. Most of it’s imperceptible. Thanks be to God that it is. Because if we could see it all, it would frighten us.
And what God protects us from—not only outside of us, with all of this world and its evil demons, but the demons that lie within us—meaning our own sinfulness, not literal demons, but our sinfulness, which…
It’s a Lutheran Christian sermon. And especially of those whom you desire to see on the other side of this world. So do they. So do they. In the name of the one who created that faith, sustains it, and will bring it to completion when you close your eyes in faith. Yes, Lord, I believe. In the name of him, Jesus, amen.
